At 6-foot-7, Greg Beaufort once towered over defenders on the basketball court at East Hartford High. But seven bullets fired into his body during the early morning hours of Jan. 28, 2017 changed everything.

Gone was the chance to go to college on a basketball scholarship, to one day have a family, to lead a normal, pain-free life.

Beaufort was home to care for his mother, who was battling cancer, when he headed to the Krauszer’s store on Main Street in East Hartford for a bite to eat that January morning. Inside the store he encountered Alphonso Clarke, 28.

Beaufort said he did not know Clarke and still does not understand why their brief encounter inside the store ended in such violence. “I went to the store to get a sandwich and he shot me seven times,” Beaufort said at Clarke’s court appearance Thursday. “I don’t even know him.”

Jesse Smith, 27, of Bloomfield was also charged in connection with the shooting. He is due back in court May 2.

Beaufort told the court he was in the hospital for six months, endured multiple surgeries, and was in rehab for six months. He’s been hospitalized several times since the shooting with complications.

Under a plea offer extended by Hartford Superior Court Judge Laura Baldini, Clarke would have served 13 years in prison and then been on special parole for seven years. He faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to a reduced charge of first-degree assault.

“Afterward he comes home and lives his life,” Beaufort said, referring to Clarke, “I’m still going to be messed up from this.”

Beaufort appears unsteady on his feet and has great difficulty walking.

Baldini asked Beaufort what he wanted her to do.

“I have to deal with this the rest of my life,” he said. “I’m 26 years old. I did everything right.”

Clarke, who at times shook his head and looked away while Beaufort spoke, began to suggest Beaufort was not telling the truth, and his public defender, Robert Meredith, told the judge that there had been a dispute between the two men inside the store.

Prosecutor David Zagaja said that whatever happened in the store, Clarke “went astronomically above and beyond what was needed. He armed himself and repeatedly shot him at close range and almost killed him.”

After a lunch recess, Baldini returned to court and told Clarke that listening to Beaufort caused her to reconsider her offer and that she was withdrawing it. She said she would consider Zagaja’s offer, which included two more years in prison, when Clarke returns to court.

“I do not feel that the court’s offer … would serve justice,” the judge said.

Clarke told her she was being unfair.

Also in court Thursday was Andre Chamberlain Walker, who suffered broken teeth and and broken bones in his face when William Torres, 21, hit him repeatedly with a baseball bat inside his Hartford apartment on Aug. 2, 2016.

He said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and has difficulty sleeping through the night as a result of the attack.

“He’s a great threat to the community and should definitely spend time behind bars,” Walker said.

Baldini sentenced Torres to eight years in prison and seven years of special parole. He too pleaded guilty to first-degree assault as part of a plea agreement.